Privilege Escalation: How CISOs Detect Hidden Admins

Privilege escalation paths and shadow admins are the gateway to many of today’s corporate cyberattacks. Attacks via escalation paths or privileges associated with shadow admins are particularly dangerous, as we are talking about permissions that give access to organizations’ most sensitive assets and data.

Detecting these threats and remaining alert to possible attacks is a complex and demanding task, especially for a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), who is ultimately responsible for information security. To make it easier to respond effectively to these risks, at Soffid IAM we have developed a solution that simplifies Identity & Access Management, making the complex easy.

SOFFID ITDR is an Identity Threat Detection & Response solution based on real-time monitoring of identity activity (including privileged accounts), enabling pattern identification and anomaly detection, and automatic response to potential threats.

Our ITDR solution integrates with other IAM solutions that converge on a centralized management platform, allowing you to manage what is normally scattered across multiple platforms from a single dashboard. This not only facilitates management, but also saves time and money, resulting in increased operational efficiency.

Risks posed by privilege escalation and shadow admins

Privilege escalation occurs when a lower-level account obtains higher privileges and can therefore access assets or perform more critical actions. In this process, a privilege escalation path is generated that reflects the sequence of steps required for this upgrade (configurations, permissions, accounts, identities, etc.). 

It is increasingly common for these paths to be identified and used to gain access to these privileged accounts, posing a huge risk to the integrity and confidentiality of the organization’s data and resources. 

Similarly, cybercriminals use hidden administrator privileges to access critical assets. Shadow administrators are accounts with privileges they should not have; often, in digital environments, especially hybrid ones, administrators are created who are capable of performing administrative actions but are not even taken into account, as they are not part of the official administrative groups, nor are they identified as recognized domain administrators.

Identifying, highlighting, and monitoring these privilege escalation paths and hidden privileges, which can be used to gain unauthorized access, is essential for any company and a primary objective for a CISO.

SOFFID ITDR: real-time monitoring and automated responses

SOFFID ITDR maps and monitors in real time all activity by all identities related to an organization’s system, i.e., those that have the ability to access it in one way or another. It does so regardless of the origin of that access, whether it is local infrastructure, cloud infrastructure, internal identities, external identities, human identities, or non-human identities. 

Monitoring and response to threats is automated and comprehensive across the entire ecosystem, including privilege escalation paths.

How to detect privilege escalation paths

Nuestra solución SOFFID, a través de la ITDR, lleva a cabo diversas acciones que permiten a los CISOs visibilizar fácilmente las rutas de escalada de privilegios:

• Monitorización en tiempo real de todas las rutas entre dominios de cuentas, aplicaciones e infraestructuras.
• Identificación de configuraciones de riesgo y cuentas con privilegios innecesarios o inactivos.
• Destaca rutas de escalada de privilegios que puedan estar ocultas o pasar desapercibidas.

Our SOFFID solution, through ITDR, performs various actions that allow CISOs to easily visualize privilege escalation paths:

• Real-time monitoring of all paths between account domains, applications, and infrastructures.
• Identification of risky configurations and accounts with unnecessary or inactive privileges.
• Highlights privilege escalation paths that may be hidden or go unnoticed.

With SOFFID ITDR, a CISO only has to assess the risks and define the most appropriate strategy for their organization; the technical part of threat detection and response is fully covered.

How to detect hidden privileges

By analyzing all identities and controlling all access, SOFFID ITDR manages to “bring to light” hidden administrators. This is achieved automatically through:

• Identification and monitoring of shadow systems and associated hidden administrators
• Analysis of access control lists (ACLs)
• Monitoring and restricting the number of privileged accounts (only those strictly necessary)
• Implementing recurring audits that include logging administration accounts.

Benefits of SOFFID ITDR for CISOs

Real-time mapping and monitoring

Strengthens security across the entire digital ecosystem and for all types of identities. SOFFID ITDR provides constant monitoring of privileged accounts, atypical access patterns, or potential internal threats, such as privilege escalation paths and hidden administrators.

Gives visibility to identity management across the entire organization

SOFFID ITDR monitors all identity activity and logs access in the different environments that form part of the organization, whether they are hybrid infrastructures, multi-cloud, or remote access.

Comprehensive ITDR strategy, single management platform

Through a single, simple interface, CISOs can view all identity activity and obtain information on access patterns, audits, or areas for improvement. 

Real-time threat detection and automated response

Process automation with SOFFID ITDR means that CISOs do not have to worry about whether the appropriate protocols are activated or whether it takes too long to respond to threats. As soon as the risk of unauthorized access is detected, SOFFID ITDR executes automatic actions and response flows, such as alerts to the security team, account blocking, or temporary access restrictions.

Response time is streamlined and, as a result, the threat is contained before it can escalate.

Assistance in making informed and more effective decisions

Monitoring identity management and access control through SOFFID ITDR not only makes this activity visible, detects anomalies, and activates automatic responses to threats, but also provides CISOs with key information to develop better ITDR strategies.

SOFFID ITDR takes care of the technical side, while also providing data on identity behavior and access patterns that help CISOs make decisions about which risks to prioritize, how to allocate resources more effectively, or how to optimize operations and regulatory compliance.  

In short, at Soffid IAM we create solutions to simplify ITDR, providing CISOs with useful, easy-to-use tools that adapt to the characteristics of each organization. To help us design the solution you need, get in touch and let’s talk.